|
Reuters - 18 March, 2004
West must back 'modernists' within Islam - study
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The world is focusing too much on radical fundamentalists and ignoring the diverse views struggling to define Islam, according to a new study that urges aggressive U.S. and European efforts to support pro-Western Muslim "modernists."
The study released on Thursday by the RAND Corp, a private think tank that often does contract work for the U.S. government, concludes that Islamic fundamentalists and traditionalists, who are most at odds with democratic values, dominate the public debate.
But in fact these groups are a minority of Muslims in Europe and the United States and pro-Western "modernists" -- who are "most compatible with global peace and the international community" -- must be strongly backed and encouraged, it recommends.
"The United States and its allies need to be more discriminating in the way they perceive and interact with groups who call themselves Islamic," said Cheryl Benard, who authored "Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources and Strategies."
"The term is too vague and it doesn't really help us when we are looking to encourage progress and democratic principles, while being supportive of religious beliefs," she said.
Her findings came as President George W. Bush is trying to sell his controversial initiative to promote democracy throughout the Middle East following the Iraq war.
The report describes contemporary Islam as being in a "volatile" struggle over values and its place in the world that has significant implications for the rest of the world.
Benard carefully dissects the various strains of Islam.
Fundamentalists reject democratic values and contemporary Western culture and want an authoritarian, puritanical state that will implement an extreme view of Islamic law and morality, she wrote.
Traditionalists want a conservative society and are suspicious of modernity, innovation and change.
Modernists want the Islamic world to become part of the modern world.
Secularists want Islam to accept a division of church and state, but are often unacceptable as allies on the basis of broader ideological affiliations.
While the latter two groups are closest to the West, "they are generally in a weaker position than the other two groups, lacking powerful backing, financial resources, an effective infrastructure and a public platform," the report states.
Benard urged the West to "support the modernists first" by publishing their writings, introducing their views in Islamic curriculum, giving them a platform from which to speak and aiding development of civic organizations.
She argued that "change can be effected in Islam" and the modernists have many potential leaders with scholarly credentials and a thorough knowledge of Islamic doctrine to help direct this process. Among them are Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia; Khaled Abou El, an Islamic law professor at University of California, Los Angeles; and European intellectual Bassam Tibi.
Millions of Muslims live in the West but surveys, the media and governments focus on the more conservative groups, skewing the discourse, the report found. As examples, it cited books on Islam in a Maryland public library that are all written from a traditionalist, almost fundamentalist, perspective and contain false information.
The U.S. State Department"s official "Muslim Life in America" web site is "exclusively dedicated to traditionalist content in word and image (with) no hint that there might be a range of views on these issues within the U.S. Muslim community," Benard wrote.
http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/thenews/newsdesk/N18568500.htm
|
